Does anyone know what this stuff is? Fungus, maybe?

[Chiroptera]

It's popped up all over my tank the past few days. It's little white fluff balls, like little clouds. They sway with the current, and attach to everything. I cleaned some off my glass, but it's on all my decorations. Not on my fish, they all seem healthy and happy. The only thing in my water parameters that's not usual is the NitrAtes, which were at 80ppm, but I did a large water change yesterday after I saw that.

Has anyone else had this problem? Should I go and get something to kill it off? I figure it's a fungus or bacteria, it looks too loose to be ich, but I may be wrong.

The only sign of stress from my fish is that my catfish have flashed, but only once or twice, against rocks. Maybe I caught something early?

 

[absolutangel04]

Hmmmm... does it wipe off easily? Have you tried wiping it all off and then doing a big pwc?

 

[Chiroptera]

Hmmmm... does it wipe off easily? Have you tried wiping it all off and then doing a big pwc?

It's a little stubborn, and it almost smears when wiped, but it goes away. I did it on the glass and it took quite a while for them to show up again. I haven't tried wiping them down yet, I'll do that in the next few days and see if it'll come back.

 

[Tigroscr]

Have you put any driftwood in the tank recently?

 

[absolutangel04]

It's a little stubborn, and it almost smears when wiped, but it goes away. I did it on the glass and it took quite a while for them to show up again. I haven't tried wiping them down yet, I'll do that in the next few days and see if it'll come back.

It could be from bacteria, fungus, or that weird white algae. I am not sure which one this is. I wouldn't bother doing any meds for it, it would just be a waste of money if it doesn't work. Another thing you can try to blacking out the tank for a few days. I got white bacteria similar to that when I first started one of my tanks. I kept scrubbing it off and eventually it sorted itself out.

 

[ML42]

If you recently put in wood, it can sometimes carry fungus IDK what the names are. This is sometimes a newbie mistake not to offend anyone, this is why they recommend you soak your wood before putting it on your main tank, if you have that on your main tank now what ypu can do is a big WC and then add some sort of fungus or aid to your tank they sell it at petco and petsmart.
Hope this helps and again im not trying to offend anyone by the newbie comment

 

[Tigroscr]

If it's the type of white cotton like fungus from driftwood it's completely harmless and will go away soon.

 

[absolutangel04]

There isn't any driftwood, just so you guys know. She told me in chat that everything in the tank is fake.

 

[Niki]

How much are you feeding, it could be moldy food?

 

[Chiroptera]

Everything in my nursery tank is fake.

I don't overfeed.. and moldy food has a tan tint to it, and actually looks like a moldy fungus.

I'll scrub everything when I do my next WC.. I mean, if I felt like it was horribly dangerous, I would have been more frantic, but if my fish seem completely unaffected, I'll just try and figure it out. If it comes back I'll try using some bacterial or fungal aid, but adding chemicals like that is a last resort.

I'd just really like to know what it could be, or what caused it.

 

[spenny]

I have the exact same thing in my new 55gal. My 6 tetras look completely fine. No driftwood, just Tahitian Moon sand and two fake plants. Waiting for my magfloat to get here so I can whip it all away in one go then a decent % water change. I will take the plants out too and give them a wash.
I'll post my results.

Spenny

 

[Chiroptera]

I rinsed off everything, and it came back the same day. I'll test my params again, maybe a level is making it wacky..